


Just 9 Easy Payments

by spiritedwhere



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-19 21:47:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13132881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiritedwhere/pseuds/spiritedwhere
Summary: Yuuri Katsuki has a problem, and he can owe it all to late night informericals and a smooth talking host.





	Just 9 Easy Payments

**Author's Note:**

> part of the YOI group project #3, thread on the rest of the team’s work here: https://twitter.com/sh_marr_writes/status/943926100073336832

Yuuri likes to think it all started over some coffee.

Finals week. One of the worst possible times to ever run out of caffeine, and especially in the middle of the night.

Grunting, Yuuri placed his cup down, wondering if he could make the trek to the bathroom and fill up his pot with water, just enough to make a few more cups for the night. It wasn’t like he would be the only person running around, especially on the eve of finals week. No, he was more concerned if the noise or smell would interrupt his rest, where he laid curled up and happily snoring leaned up next to his bed, television softly playing in front of him. Next to him, his hamsters were in their cage, eating from the food Yuuri had just placed in there. The sounds of their bodies moving around, paired with the breaking of the metal cage, was normal enough for the duo, but Phichit had the tendency to rise from random noises, which coffee machines were no strangers for.

Yuuri looked around the room. Dozens of folders and almost all of their textbooks lay strewn around them, notes and crumpled up papers they thought they hadn’t needed adding to the final touch in their décor. Before Phichit, whatever TLC show he had been watching before long gone, and an informercial taking its place. If Yuuri was right, that would clearly make it way past midnight, and very well a warning sign that he should rest up before his first set of finals in the morning.

He stood up, making for the remote. Grabbing it, his finger hovered on the off button, gazing at whatever was chosen to be advertised tonight.

A face stops him from turning it off, instead causing him to set the remote down and stare at the screen. A tall, well dressed man stands, looking into the camera and shining a grin. He’s holding a knife set of some sort, and seems to be rambling about some amazing thing about them, Yuuri can’t be bothered to note. He does, however, note the way his silver hair hangs, how his broad shoulders look amazing with that nice button down, and his thick accent, which Yuuri sums up to be some sort of European.

Yuuri sets the remote down, choosing to sit down and curl up next to Phichit. He grabs the blanket and wraps it around his shoulders, focusing his gaze on the television.

“-And if you call now, not only will you be getting this entire knife set, you’ll also be able to have this limited edition, _one-of-a-kind_ , totally exclusive knife rack to display all of your knives, for free!! It’s a deal you can’t help but jump at!” says the guy, excitedly (maybe _too_ excitedly) showing one of the knives to the camera. Underneath him, the numbers to the hotline he could call flashed, bright red and in a font that should never be displayed on live television.

It was almost robotic, the way he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Practically something out of a movie how he dialed and found a women’s voice asking him if yes, did he want to purchase the _Swift and Clean Nikiforov Knife Set_ , complete with 17 knives of all different sizes and sharpness, and if so, would he be doing separate payments or one large payment with his credit or debit card? He doesn’t even register the order has gone through until he’s hung up and his bank sent him an alert, and Phichit is softly nudging him, taking the blanket off of him and rising up slowly.

“It’s late. We should go and start sleeping,” Phichit tells him, a mother’s tone painted all over his voice. He doesn’t wait for Yuuri to get up off the floor before he’s burrowed himself into his bed, however, and merely raises a hand towards Yuuri as a signal to turn off the television and call it a night.

So Yuuri does so, grabbing the remote and hitting the off button with a quick go, watching the guy disappear and the room go to total silence. But, he can almost picture how he looked in his mind, all smiles and rolled up sleeves showing off pale skin, but tight muscles pressing up against the fabric. It’s not an easy sight to ignore and simply forget, and Yuuri spends more than half of his sleep thinking of them, thinking of _him_. By the time the package comes in, and Phicht bounces in the room from the mailroom, box large and tossed into Yuuri’s arms, though, Yuuri’s seen enough of him to paint a picture from memory.

His debit card has also seen enough, about five more transactions all connected to one thing, or say, _person_.

Yuuri doesn’t see it as a problem. Well, not at first. But, after the first few weeks of staying up late, which later bled into months and soon two years, and after Phichit and Yuuri moved from their dorm room to a small apartment of their own, he’s started to amass a large amount of things ordered. Way too much stuff, if he’s being clear.

And not only too much stuff, but too many of it turns out to be worthless things. Weird suits that are supposed to hold both food and keep you warm, toys for nonexistent kids, and even more pet toys for more nonexistent animals, kitchen objects that give the Food Network a run for its money, even with their obsession with takeout taking up most of the week’s meals.

There’s so much junk actually that Phichit’s decided to turn a profit from it all.

“My job needs this,” he defends himself, as he grabs his camera and turns it on. Yuuri is next to him, sitting at their dining table and looking at the obnoxiously big sticker printed on the side of it, _Buzzfeed_ proudly printed onto it. Phichit landed an internship during his third year in college, and was fully employed by graduation, now one of Buzzfeed’s leading faces and fan favorites. “You know we have to try and produce one viral video each month.”

That, of course, was something Yuuri knew Phicht could achieve. Any thumbnail containing his face was sure to gain a large amount of views, and even more revenue for the company.

“So you’re gonna mooch off my Viktor collection?” Yuuri says. With enough time passed, he’s gotten time to research more into the seriously attractive host, and found a name, along with dozens more of informericals, which Yuuri then binged. _Viktor Nikiforov_. Russian. Up and coming actor, who mostly does late night informericals and the odd job as an extra.

“I’m not gonna mooch. Just use it to help me out while I try to find a backup viral video. And anyways, if I’m the one mooching off of Viktor, you’re clearly the one wanting to get to smooching. And we both know this is the video that’ll get it to happen.”

Yuuri flushes red so fast he’s nervous it’ll create fog on his lenses. It’s been no secret how much he’s gotten to a strong liking on Viktor, one so hard he’s gotten plenty of friends asking who’s got him in such a lovebird phase. And since Phichit’s suggested the video and the days leading up to it, Yuuri can’t help but let his mind wander and picture a world in where _Viktor Nikiforov_ himself might stumble upon the video and want to meet him, maybe suggest hanging out together. Or maybe start up a conversation on Twitter, maybe keep up a steady conversation for weeks, perhaps months. But, he could also insult him, think they were using his informericals as a source for comedic purposes. What if he got mad, decided to stop filming informericals in general, or even stop doing anything at-

“Okay, I’m gonna start filming now. Just act natural, okay?” Without waiting for his response, Phichit presses the play button, letting it run for a few minutes to test out the focus and make sure it was filming them. 

Phichit adjusted the camera, focusing it in on Yuuri and him. On the table lay dozens of boxes, Sharpie scribbling out their address. Yuuri nervously fiddled with one of the boxes, fingering the tape that closed it off.

Phichit grinned, his classic grin already in place as he introduced Yuuri and himself, before motioning to the large array of boxes set up before them. “Today, we’ll be going through and looking at all the crazy things my roommate bought after watching this guy-“ here Phichit mentioned he’d be editing in a clip of Viktor “-selling them late at night.”

Yuuri sprung to defense quickly, pointing out that it was his money, and so what if he seemed a little overboard, it wasn’t like he was buying the entire collection Viktor showcased.

  
Phichit was quick to scoff at that, bringing up the fact Yuuri drank enough coffee during the night to stay up more than Phichit did during his first semester at college.

They went through the boxes somewhat quickly, even avoiding a whole monologue by Yuuri about the importance behind each object, even while he found it increasingly hard to work each object.

“I’m telling you, they work. I’ve seen him do it.”

“Seen who?”

“Pretty Russian guy. We’ve been over this before. Now come on. I think these instructions say we pull the string over, and then yank it under the machine.”

“Okay.” Phichit tries to help, holding the string to whatever Yuuri bought. “Just one question. Which side is the bottom?”

“I thought you knew.”

Understandably, the video turns into a hit, inspiring two memes, one reaction image, and three parody videos made by some of YouTube’s top creators. Buzzfeed reaches out and asks for a few more videos, with Phichit’s friends joining in for a few and adding to the buzz more. It’s become one of the biggest series, with enough views to keep them well fed for months. Yuuri’s social media gets blown up in only the best of ways, and it’s one night over a bowl of takeout food, where he gets the best notification he could have never thought of getting.

_Viktor Nikiforov @vik_nikiforov followed you back!_

Yuuri blacks out after this, unable to recall anything for the rest of night, not even when Phichit comes home with two new boxes and a bucketful of praise only one of Buzzfeed’s top employees can carry.

“They want to do another one,” Phichit’s beaming as he says this, fried rice spilling out of his mouth and back into the takeout cup. “With Leo and Guang-Hong of course, but this time they’re more for sponsoring stuff than anything else. I told them we could shoot it this weekend, but they also want to reach out to Viktor’s agency and see if there’s any way for a collab, maybe for next month’s video. It’s been such a hit, and I know the sales for his products have gone up, so I’m more than sure they’ll say yes.”

“Phichit, that’s great! But, do you even think they’ll accept it?”

“Of course they will!” he assures. “I’ve already taken the extra measure of messaging Viktor myself, so I’m more than positive he’ll get them to agree-“

“Wait,” Yuuri interrupts. “You did _what_?”

“Messaged him. Like, on Snapchat and stuff?” Phichit shoves more rice in his mouth, taking his time with swallowing it before continuing. “He added me there like two weeks ago, so we’ve been sending snaps every time a new box comes in or something related to the video happens. He’s really funny, you know. I think you too are going to have a great time when you meet.”

“You really went and added him and didn’t tell me?”

“Yes. But, it wasn’t like I didn’t talk to him about you. He’s stalked your Twitter and Insta more times than I can count, and trust me when I say he’s absolutely _dying_ to meet you.” A ping from Phichit’s phone catches his attention, and he opens it quickly, reading the message he’s received. After, he brings his head up, smugly smiling at Yuuri.

“Guess who’s said we’re approved for shooting in L.A. two weeks from now?”

Later, after months of late night talks and dozens of trips to meet each other, and Viktor’s secured a well paying acting job someplace only an hour away from him, and Yuuri finally gets the chance to work as head of social media and merchandising only a cubicle away from Phichit, Yuuri likes to think coffee really did set the course for everything following. 


End file.
